Posted in July 2010

I’d love to write more to the blog this week, but, owing to bad organization, the week has turned busy. On Sunday I’ll depart to Aspen, Colorado for three weeks to attend traditional summer workshop in the Physics Center over there. So I had to do a lot this week, and the lot appeared to be lotter than usual. I was writting response to referee reports with Alina, freshly reboot the project with Mihajlo (partly, by means of a bureacratical evaluation procedure: it may work as well), do noisy with Ciprian (and perhaps we will soon explain some experimental puzzles), spend half a day discussinng quantum bifurcation with Alec Massen van der Brink and talk to another dozen of people (actually counted…) Doing all that was fun, yet some important things I had to skip: bad feelings…

International Biographical Centre (see http://yuli.weblog.tudelft.nl/2010/05/20/top-100-scientists-2010) at Cambridge was quick to comfort me with the loss of ERC grant. They promote me to Iconic Achiever and are ready to send me International Einstein Award ( they ask 400 quid for this). Hurra.

So I have learned today that my ERC proposal is rejected. Therefore there will be no unified theory of quantum transport. Instead, somebody will excercise first-year physics or kick molecules over the substrate. Will write more about when get to normal.

In the end of April I’ve submitted a grant application to FOM (see http://yuli.weblog.tudelft.nl/2010/05/01/proposal-fom-projectruimte) whereby I hope to get a Ph.D. student to devise polarons in carbon nanotubes. Today they annouce the results of the first round. My application is still pending, however the chances for its approval do not look much better than in the beginning…

They say they got 42 applications and can grant no more than a quarter. Several proposals have been immediately approved, some have been rejected while mine belongs to the group of 12 that they want to send to the referees. Wish me some luck.

born in Marken, has reached the Ph.D. title today. His promotor, Hans Mooij, flanked by Kees Harmans, has stressed several times that in case of Pieter the title should read "doctor of engineering" thereby showing his appreciation for perfect designs of qubits and read-outs Pieter has accomplished in the course of his promotion work.

The work presented in the thesis is of exceptional quality and resonance. However here in Delft this is very usual. What was unusual is a high quality of the defence: with no exaggeration, it was one of the best defences I ever attended. Pieter managed not only to answer all the questions and keep the opponents at bay: he did so without telling any unjustified and/or scientifically ambigouos things. His propositions were both provocative and formulated in such a way that people with opposite views could sign them: Pieter could be indispensible in formation of Dutch government.

Yet I hope he would not rush to politics and stay in research: we all would profit form this.

nato ad Ancona, graduated today. I was in the commission and was surprised to learn that diamond dust is not at all toxic: I always thought it was a poison of choice in Middle Ages. Diego did quantum manipulation of NV centers in diamond in the group of Ronal Hanson and has produced a good harmonic thesis where everything was present: theorical background, very sucsessful experiment, a promising analysis of possible applications and even a bit of physics.

He’s got a mark that is highest possible one in quantum transport group, 9. Good luck, Diego, with future research.

I did not think I would be watching a football match on TV. Last time I enjoyed this activity the TV sets were black-and-white (and Uruguay was on forth place, if I recall correctly). Yet the magic of collective madness works on me as well, and today I was watching.

Not bad. Was a real fight, was a sense of achievement. A deserved win.

student of Leo Kouwenhoven, has got this Ph. D. title today. He’s fabricated, contacted and measured more than a thousand of nanowire samples, so their total length spans almost a centimeter. Close to the end of the Ph.D. term he’s been awarded by – how he puts it – "intense happiness" of observation of single electron spin. Good work, good thesis, good person: the whole science is founded on shoulders of such people.

Though I had to object one of his propositions. He wrote that the influence of the position of plant Venus on one’s birth is identical to that of an apple at 1 cm distance. I believe that this statement has arised from a theoretical estimation based on a model where the concrete details of birth process have been oversimplified if not at all neglected. Well, it’s just a matter of experience…

has taken place yesterday. Robert Kohn, president of Kavli Foundation, and Miyong Chung, vice-president of science programs, were visiting our institution, as you remember, Kavli institute of NanoScience. They wanted to meet and talk to some faculty, this gave the reason for the lunch.

The lunch was "foreign", that is, deviated in all aspects from traditional bisness Dutch lunch. Food was warn and tasty, milk was absent. Excellent fish.

Faculty were few, half were freshly-hired assistant professors from biological part, eager to talk about their research. We’ve started noticing that we’ve plenty of time and decided to introduce ourselfs. After introduction there was hardly any time left. Yet Robert Kohn told us of ways Kavli foundation likes its money to be spent, and some new initiatives. Everything made sense, it was a clear and informative presentation.